Inspiring Story Of A Uganda “Billionaire” Student

When I learnt of Abdu’s achievement, I got challenged and asked myself if am really a worthy university student. At his tender age of 24 the guy could be rolling in millions if not billions for his witticism.

Abdu Ssekalala is a young Ugandan student at the School of Computing and Information Technology, Makerere University, and a billionaire, at least in Ugandan currency. At 24, he already boasts a portfolio of more than nine mobile phone applications, which have earned him a fortune, fame and acclaim.

Abdu’s break came after he learned to develop for mobile at a Nokia sponsored training for Java ME training session in Uganda in 2011. Initially, he intended to focus on enterprise systems and the web. However, he changed his mind after realizing that mobile would give him the chance of impacting the lives of more people across Africa and the world. When he developed his first app after the training, Nokia were willing to customize it for Ovi, their app store and things changed fast

Phenomenally brilliant Abdu

Among the free apps Sekalala has created is Uganda Theme. It is a free app that allows users to customize your phone with the Ugandan flag, and it is Abdu’s most popular. In the first week of its launch, it became the 3rd most downloaded app in the world. Other apps include 101 Romantic SMS, which generates poems and love messages that users can send out via SMS. Fellow Kenyan comrade, are you reading this? Yay! Ssekalala modified this app to come up with his first application for android phones which became available on the Samsung platform in April 2012.

Sekalala makes at least $100 a day from his apps with his only investment being his time. He advises other young people to take advantage of opportunities when they come knocking, I believed I was going going to make a mark when Uganda Theme performed impressively. Ssekalala adds his role model is Facebook founder Zuckerberg and he plans to make a million dollars before he is thirty. In addition to developing apps, he runs two other companies that focus on website development; Gogetta which employs eight people and For Technology with seven employees making Sekalala an inspiration to budding techies all over Africa.

Kindly come up with something substantial guys, you could be stinking rich by the time of your graduation!